June 2010

It’s that time of the year when I have the pleasure of sending out the new season’s programme. I’ve not had a chance to fully go through it myself yet but I do know we are continuing to put on good walks and have a packed social diary in the coming months. I’d just like to extend my thanks to those who make the programme happen and the walk leaders and social event convenors. Thank you all from me and I’m sure the members of SURG who really appreciate all your efforts.

I’d like to draw your attention to a few things:

New walk ratings

You’ll notice that the walk ratings are no longer "A", "B" and "C." This is to tie in with the national system used by The Ramblers. It will enable us to link our walks onto the Ramblers "Group Walks Finder" website so that people can find our walks much more readily. In essence the descriptive terms being used are similar to those we have previously used. I hope that this will open up the group to more potential members who use the Ramblers website to find out about our and other 20s and 30s groups.

Ale Trail re-scheduled

I know there were some SURG members disappointed by the cancellation of Paul Russell’s Surrey’s Far East Ale Trail. This has been re-scheduled to later in the Summer, Sunday 15th August to be precise so those of us with a passion for good beer can still get a fix of the stuff in a less travelled area of the county. More information here.

Walk Saturday 5th June

As there was a gap in the programme from re-scheduling the ale trail, Katy has graciously offered to lead a walk instead. Please see here for details. As I write this on Tuesday 1st June, the Met Office are predicting a fantastic sunny day on Saturday so hopefully this should stay, they seem to be getting their short-term forecasts right these days...

SURG Camping Weekend 25th-27th June

Richard and Jacqueline Buckland have kindly agreed to organise this summer’s SURG camping weekend and have asked for a reminder you of the event.

This has been moved to the members only section of the website.

Summer Ball – Lewes

Brighton and Hove Ramblers are holding another Summer Ball in Lewes. SURG members have been invited. If you would like to attend please contact Clive Holt, details here.

SURG barbecue

The barbecue will be held on Saturday 24th July at the usual venue. The Met Office no longer provides longer range forecasts but the way it is looking is that we have a better chance of a Barbecue Summer than last year. Hopefully this will be the case!

Colin Towers has kindly volunteered to organise this. We do need some volunteers to help out, in particular with making salads and desserts (we do appreciate the healthier and sweeter things in life, now if someone were to make a dessert involving cider that would be fantastic...!), please get in touch with him on surg.web@surreyyoungwalkers.org.uk. I’ll be sending out price and booking details in due course.

Other items

HikeFest

The Berkshire Walkers are trying to arrange a replacement for this year’s cancelled WalkFest. They are planning to hold a similar Hike Festival in Newbury, Berkshire, on the weekend of 18th-20th September. They are hoping to have one walk on the Friday and three on both the Saturday and Sunday. If you are interested in attending please contact me and I will provide details as I get them.

Website

Some of you may have noticed the new look website, particularly the linked map on the front page. The walks on for the next week are visible at a glance and this should make it easier for you to decide the ease of getting to the start of the walk. I’d like to thank Colin for sorting this out.